Working on performance through a sustainable lens: Concept, correlates, and context

Tianchang Ji

Research output: ThesisDoctoral thesis 1 (Research UU / Graduation UU)

Abstract

In today’s rapidly shifting and interconnected landscape, it is imperative for organizations to sustain optimal levels of employee productivity, adaptability, and well-being to achieve both organizational success and broader societal advancement. While, as introduced, previous research has shed valuable light on the concept of sustainable performance, there remain pivotal research gaps that are insufficiently explored and demand more thorough investigations. First, while previous research has made valuable insights into sustainable performance, there is insufficient direct exploration into its conceptualization and operationalization, resulting in the absence of a comprehensive framework to consistently define and measure sustainable performance. Therefore, the first goal of this dissertation is to advance existing research by exploring the conceptualization and operationalization of sustainable performance. Second, although previous studies have employed various mechanisms or concepts to describe sustainable performance or its core characteristics, as yet empirical research exploring how it relates to its potential determinants (or antecedents) is largely missing. Specifically, as this dissertation conceptualized, there is a lack of sufficient studies investigating how job demands, resources, and recovery processes contribute to sustainable performance. A thorough investigation into these factors is essential for accumulating empirical evidence on their roles and interactions. Therefore, the second goal of this dissertation is to explore and elucidate these antecedents of sustainable performance, focusing on how job demands, job resources, and recovery processes during and after work impact and sustain performance. Third, there has been an increasing trend of sports psychology research studies drawing on theoretical frameworks from the realm of W/O psychology. Indeed, these two contexts share similarities. From an individual perspective, athletes, much like employees, must balance the demands of their sports environment with appropriate resources and recovery strategies to sustain long-term performance. Just as employees navigate job demands, athletes face various “job” demands in their athletic pursuits, necessitating the effective acquisition of corresponding resources or the use of recovery periods to maintain their sports-related “work” performance. By extending sustainable performance from work (i.e., employee sustainable performance) to sports (i.e., athlete sustainable performance), the third goal of this dissertation is to investigate the mechanism of sustainable performance in the sports context, and identify its specific adaptations and validation from work to the sports context. Finally, as previously mentioned, sustainable performance represents a longer-term performance construct that emphasizes ongoing effectiveness. This means that employees’ current work performance meets present work demands while also considering the sustainability of this performance in meeting future work demands − all without compromising their health and well-being. In other words, employee work performance should not only be evaluated or driven by current or momentaneous circumstances, but rather be pursued or crafted using a sustainable perspective. In contrast, traditional work performance indicators (i.e., in-role performance and extra-role performance) are mainly momentaneous-based and focus on immediate results and short-term achievements. Therefore, the final goal of this dissertation is to explore the associations between traditional momentaneous performance indicators and sustainable performance, with a particular focus on the temporal dynamics that shape these relations. Understanding how momentaneous work performance constructs both influence and are influenced by sustainable performance over time is crucial.
Original languageEnglish
QualificationDoctor of Philosophy
Awarding Institution
  • Utrecht University
Supervisors/Advisors
  • Taris, Toon, Supervisor
  • de Jonge, Jan, Supervisor
  • Peeters, Maria, Supervisor
Award date22 Jan 2025
Place of PublicationUtrecht
Publisher
Print ISBNs978-94-6506-846-6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 22 Jan 2025

Keywords

  • Organizational behavior
  • work performance
  • sustainable performance
  • well-being and health
  • job demands
  • job resources
  • off-job recovery
  • empirical study

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